A study on the english collocation containing the verb SET with reference to their vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON THE ENGLISH COLLOCATION
CONTAINING THE VERB “SET” WITH REFERENCE TO
THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KẾT HỢP TỪ CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ “SET” TRONG
TIẾNG ANH VÀ NHỮNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ TOÀN

Hanoi, 2016


Front hard cover
Back hard cover

NGUYỄN THỊ TOÀN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2014 - 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON THE ENGLISH COLLOCATION
CONTAINING THE VERB “SET” WITH REFERENCE TO
THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC KẾT HỢP TỪ CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ “SET” TRONG
TIẾNG ANH VÀ NHỮNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ TOÀN

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoàng Tuyết Minh

Hanoi, 2016


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality

i

Acknowledgements

ii

Abstract

iii

Abbreviations

iv

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1

1.1.

1.1. Rationale

1

1.2.

1.2. Aims of the research

2

1.3.

1.3. Objectives of the research

2

1.4.

1.4. Scope of the research

3

1.5.

1.5. Significance of the research

3

1.6.

1.6. Structural organization of the thesis

3

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

5

2.1.

2.1. Previous studies

5

2.2.

2.2. Theoretical background

7

2.2.1. 2.2.1. English collocation

7

2.2.1.1. The origin of the word “collocation”

7

2.2.1.2. Definition of collocation

8

2.2.1.3. The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations

9

2.2.1.4. Classification of collocation

11

2.2.1.5. Characteristics of collocation

14

2.2.2. Theory of verb

16

2.2.2.1. Definition

16

2.2.2.2. Multi- word verb

17

2.2.2.3. Classification of sentences in terms of sentence elements and

2.2.

verb complementation

21

2.3. Summary

22

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

23


3.1.

3.1. Research-governing orientations

23

3.1.1. 3.1.1. Research questions

23

3.1.2. 3.1.2. Research setting

23

3.1.3. 3.1.3. Research approaches

23

3.1.4. 3.1.4. Principles/ criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

24

3.2.

24

3.2. Research methods

3.2.1. 3.2.1. Major method and supporting method

24

3.2.2. 3.2.2. Data collection techniques

25

3.2.3. 3.2.3. Data analysis techniques

25

3.2.4. 3.3. Summary

25

Chapter 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE
ENGLISH COLLOCATION CONTAINING THE VERB SET
WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 27
4.1.

4.1. Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb
Set

4.2.

4.2. Semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb
Set

4.2.1. 4.2.1. Conveying the meaning of “placing in position”

27

30
32

4.2.2. 4.2.2. Conveying the meaning of “causing to be in a particular state or
to happen”

33

4.2.3. 4.2.3. Conveying the meaning of “ adjusting or arranging”

34

4.2.4. 4.2.4. Conveying the meaning of “creating”

35

4.2.5. 4.2.5. Conveying the meaning of “making or becoming firm or fixed”

36

4.2.6. Conveying the meaning of “presenting in the right form”

37

4.2.7. Conveying the meaning of “moving or flowing”

37

4.2.8. 4.2.8. Expressing other meanings
4.3.

4.3. Comparison between the English collocation containing the verb
Set and their Vietnamese equivalents

38
44

4.3.7. 4.3.1. In terms of syntactic features

44

4.3.8. 4.3.2. In terms of semantic features

46

4.4.

4.4. Implications for teaching and learning the English collocation
containing the verb Set

4.5.

54

4.5. Summary

55

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

57

5.1.

5.1. Recapitulation

57

5.2.

5.2. Concluding remarks

57

5.3.

5.3. Limitation of the research

59

5.4.

5.4. Recommendations/Suggestions for a further research

59

REFERENCES

60

APPENDIX

65


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled A study on the English collocation containing the verb Set with reference
to their Vietnamese equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except where the
reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2016

Nguyen Thi Toan

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Assoc. Prof. PhD. Hoang Tuyet Minh
Date:……………………

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support
from a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Tuyet Minh, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly
supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas,
expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an
academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to my colleague and many others, without
whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to
have this thesis accomplished.

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband for the
sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

ii


ABSTRACT
Collocation is a big area in linguistics, it has become the subject of a
linguistic study only recently, it arouses a growing interest in numerous linguists
and is defined in various ways. However, Vietnamese students also meet
difficulties when acquiring English collocations. Therefore this paper aims at
investigating the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation
containing the verb Set with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents. It was
conducted with the hope of finding out the equivalents of the collocation
containing the verb and suggesting implications for learning and teaching of
English as a foreign language in Vietnam. Data used for analysis in this study
were mainly collected from books, literary works, and dictionary. Data analysis
is based on descriptive, quantitative, qualitative and contrastive methods.

iii


ABBREVIATION
OAL’ED: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic Dictionary
EFL: English as a foreign language
SLA: second language acquisition
Sb: somebody
Sth: something

iv

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Vocabulary in general plays an important role in any language as we cannot
communicate without words. British linguist Wilkins (1972) once stated without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. There is a common assumption that the
more words a learner knows, the larger the learner’s vocabulary knowledge is.
However, words are not used alone and separately but go with each other and
depend on each other. Words are combined into phrases. There are free phrases
and fixed phrases. The latter often confuse learners because there are not any
fixed rules for all the combinations. English-as-a-second-language learners often
have difficulties treating fixed phrases in their learning process. That is why
many learners cannot communicate fluently although they know a lot of words.
Therefore, the possible combinations of words or collocations have to be taken
into consideration.
Although collocation has become the subject of a linguistic study only
recently, it arouses a growing interest in numerous linguists and is defined in
various ways. Accordingly, there is no exhaustive and uniform definition or
categorization of collocation. Therefore, it tends to be one of the most
problematic and important area of vocabulary, especially for second language
learners. Hill (1999) goes so far as to suggest: We are familiar with the concept
of communicative competence, but perhaps we should add the concept of
collocation competence to our thinking. He also claims that non-native speakers
have problems not because of faulty grammar but a lack of collocations. Along
with Hill, McCarthy (1990) claims that collocation deserves to be a central
aspect of vocabulary study. These pieces of evidence done can show the great
1

importance of collocation in acquisition of a language. The author would like to
investigate the possibility of combining words into fixed expressions.
As mentioned above, phrases are formed by words together. Words in
English are classified into different classes in which verbs have always been one
of the most complex classes of words because verb, or rather, phrasal verb is the
central to the structure of the sentence.
According to Palmer (1965), learning a language is, to a very large degree,
how to operate the verbal forms, the pattern and the structure of the verb in that
language. There is a question which need to be answer is that how verbs
collocate with other classes of word. A verb can collocate with a noun, a
preposition, an adjective or even another verb. Verb phrases are then created.
Investigating the combinations of verbs must be necessary for improving the
students’ knowledge and lessening their difficulties.
As can be seen from the discussion above, collocation is a big area in
linguistics. In the frame work of this study, the focus of this study is only on the
collocations containing the verb set, a rather special and complex verb in
English. Since the research is carried out against the Vietnamese backgrounds,
the corresponding Vietnamese equivalents are also provided. The research is so
entitled A study on the English collocation containing the verb set with reference
to their Vietnamese equivalents
1.2. Aims of the research
This study aims at pointing out the syntactic and semantic features of the
English collocation containing the verb Set with reference to their Vietnamese
equivalents in order to help to teach and learn the English collocation containing
the verb Set more effectively.
1.3. Objectives of the research
This study is intended to:
2

-

Describing syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation

containing the verb Set.
-

Pointing out the similarities and differences between English and

Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic.
-

Suggesting implications for teaching and learning the English collocation

containing the verb Set.
1.4. Scope of the research
This study is confined to the investigation into a very small aspect of
vocabulary issue - the collocations of the verb Set in English. Set as a verb has
a number of meanings when it collocate with other classes of word. In other
words, the verb Set can be in different collocations with different meanings. Set
as a verb can collocate with a noun, a preposition, an adjective or an adverb, etc.
Vietnamese equivalents of collocations of Set will be later discussed through
analyzing English - Vietnamese examples in different contexts.
1.5. Significance of the research
-

Theoretically, the study supplies a comprehensive understanding of

semantic and syntactic features of the collocation of the verb Set in order to help

the English teachers and learners use the meanings and structure of the English
collocation containing the verb Set exactly.
-

Practically, the study provides the collocations of the verb Set with

reference to their Vietnamese equivalents in order to help the teachers of English
to teach better and and help the learners of English to study better .
1.6. Structural organization of the thesis
The study is organized into five chapters as follows.
Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the overview of the thesis including rationale,
aims, objectives, scope, significance as well as the organization of the study
Chapter 2, Literature Review, overviews the previous studies and builds up the
3


theoretical background in the study.
Chapter 3, Methodology, focuses on presenting research questions, and research
methods.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussions, presents the semantic and syntactic
features of the English collocation containing the verb set with reference to their
Vietnamese equivalents and suggests some implications for teaching and
learning.
Chapter 5, Conclusions, summarizes the major findings of the thesis along with
the practical implications, the limitations of the study and the suggestions for
further study.
References and Appendix come at the end of the study.

4

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.

Previous studies
Indeed, the term collocation is known very early, along with the language

itself. At the beginning, this issue has been neglected in teaching and learning
vocabulary for English foreign language students. The vocabulary was being
learnt and taught only with the words in isolation. However, with the
development of society and that of pedagogical methodology as well as with the
learners’ needs, there have been several studies of English collocations in the
field of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teaching. There are many linguists
deal with the notion of collocations and its importance in vocabulary acquisition
and teaching process such as Firth (1957), Gairns & Redman (1986), Halliday
(1966), Sinclair (1966), McCarthy (1990), Hill (1999)…Studying collocations
is an interesting topic, touching on the key issue of what students really need to
learn. Clearly, any student who wishes to communicate like native- speakers will
have to come to terms with the challenge of collocation. However, as you hint,
Recently, the issue of collocation has been highly estimated. In the book
English collocations in use, McCarthy & O’Dell (2005) gave simple definitions
of collocation with examples as well as exercises for learners to practice. This
book had been also given with collocations in several topics of daily
conversation. Collocations of everyday verbs were introduced into table which
listed their collocations with example and also some tips to remember them,
some exercise to practice are then followed. Bahns & Eldaw (1993), in the article
Should we teach EFL students collocations, highlighted the importance of
collocation. In their research, German advanced EFL students' productive
knowledge of English collocations consisting of a verb and a noun were

5


investigated in a translation task and a close task. Results suggested that EFL
students should concentrate on collocations that cannot readily be paraphrased.
In his own article, Bahns (1993) also raised the neglected aspect of vocabulary
and the teaching of lexical collocations in EFL should concentrate on items for
which there is no direct translational equivalence in English. Similarly, Farghal
& Obiedat (1995) addressed the issue of collocations as an important and
neglected variable in EFL classes. Two questionnaires, in English and Arabic,
involving common collocations relating to food, color, and weather were
administered to English majors and English language teachers. Results showed
both groups deficient in collocations.
As students of other languages, Vietnamese students also meet difficulties
when acquiring English collocations. In a conference at the University of
Western Sydney, Trinh (1995) mentioned to collocation, in particular English
collocation, particularly those for whom English is their second and weaker
language. The results showed that there were very few syntactic errors, and that
the examiners probably have treated syntactic and grammatical errors as one area
of error only. The author also realized that the errors being made were a result
of the candidates' lack of knowledge of English collocations, whether they are
grammatical or lexical. Moreover, in the frame of M.A. thesis at Vietnam
National University, Hanoi - University of Languages and International Studies,
there are also studies of collocations. Works by Chu Thị Phương Vân (2005), Lê
Thanh Hà (2007) and Đào Thị Ngọc Nguyên (2007) are some of typical
examples. They are all interested in the collocation issue. They investigated the
collocation’s definition, classification and the students’s knowledge about
collocations. Chu Thị Phương Vân (2005) analyzed the collocations of one
English textbook on Electronics and Telecommunications. In her works, various
types of collocations with different frequency of use and their characteristics are

6


found out. A test is followed in order to obtain information about students’
knowledge of collocation. Likewise, the common errors and the causes for these
errors are also drawn from the test result analysis. Lê Thanh Hà (2007) carried
out the lexical collocations and implications for the translators of EnglishVietnamese when meeting with lexical collocations. More concretely, Đào Thị
Ngọc Nguyên (2007) investigated collocations of only two adjectives (hard,
happy) in English. The major findings of this research are various distinguished
senses of hard and happy in different collocations and the students’ restricted
collocation competence on the two adjectives in particular and on English
lexemes in general. Indeed, they are all great useful referential works for
researchers, teachers and students who are going to investigate the issue of
collocation in English.
However, a detailed investigation into the collocations of the verb set has
not been taken. There has neither been any works that gave the insights to the
comparison between English collocations and Vietnamese ones. In the frame of
an M.A. thesis, the author would like to contribute a very minor investigation
focusing on the collocation Verb + noun (lexical collocation) with the verb set
in order to facilitate students when dealing with these combinations of words.
Also, the Vietnamese equivalents are given to compare and contrast.
2.2. Theoretical background
In order to get the aims, English collocation and overview of verbs in
English need to be made clear.
2.2.1. English collocation
2.2.1.1. The origin of the word collocation
The term collocation was first introduced by Firth (1957), a British linguist.
He was the first person to look lexis at its syntagmatic, left-to-right unfolding of
language. According to Firth (1957), the collocation is defined as a combination
7

of words associated with each other, for example to take a photo, to do
homework, to play football... The term collocation has it origin in the Latin verb
collocate which means to set in order/to arrange.
2.2.1.2. Definitions of collocation
There are various definitions of collocation. It will be noted that forming a
precise definition is difficult because different linguists have different and
conflicting definitions as what Bahns (1993) says: Regrettably, collocation is a
term which is used and understood in many different ways. Most of the
researchers who define collocation agree that it is a lexical unit consisting of a
cluster of two or three words. Firth is widely regarded as the father of this term
and we can see that most of the definitions are paraphrases of Firth’s (1957)
definition that collocations are words in habitual company. This is a quite
general definition. Collocation, then, refers to expressions in which individual
words habitually go together. In the case of verb, for instance, the verb make
goes with some words and the verb do with other words:
We made an agreement. (NOT did an agreement)
I did my homework. (NOT made my homework)
(Quirk R. et al.)
The definition of collocation will be made clearer by his followers - Sinclair
(1966) and Halliday (1966). For Halliday, collocations are examples of word
combinations; he maintains that collocation cuts across grammar boundaries.
Sinclair (1966) introduces the following terminology: an item whose
collocations are studies is called a node; the number of relevant lexical items on
each side of a node is defined as a span and those items which are found within
the span are called collocates.
We can also find the definition of collocation in any dictionary. In the
Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English (1995), Hornby gives
8

examples of the words thick and dense. We can talk about both thick fog and
dense fog. The meaning is the same. But we do not talk about a person having
dense hair. This combination just does not sound right, even through it would
easily be understood. Dense do not collocate with hair. We can only talk about
somebody having thick hair. For him, collocation is the regular combination of
words.
Runcie (2002) gives general definitions of collocation that collocation is
the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and
writing. Benson, Benson & Ilson (1986) understand and use this term:
In English, as in other languages, there are many fixed, identifiable, nonidiomatic phrases and constructions. Such groups of words are called
recurrent combinations, fixed combinations, or collocations. Collocations
fall into two groups: grammatical collocations and lexical collocations .
Thus, for him, collocation is defined as specified, identifiable, nonidiomatic, recurrent combinations. Two kinds of collocations: grammatical and
lexical ones will be analyzed in the near following part. This definition is clearer
with some properties and types of collocation.
2.2.1.3.The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations
To attain a clearer understanding of collocations, it is helpful to try to
distinguish them from idioms on the one hand and from free combinations on
the other. Apparently, collocations, free compounds and idioms share one
important feature in their form, that is to say they all refer to combinations of
words that go together very often. However, the case is that they differ from each
other in both meaning and form.
In terms of form, McCarthy (1990) claims that collocation items can be
separated by several words while words of a compound are always syntactically
bound to one another. Such is the case, for example, in make a decision. We
9

could separate make and decision with some words:
He made an extremely important decision.
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985)
On the contrary, as for compounds, we could never make any manipulation
to change its word order as in workshop. Workshop could not be separated by a
word of any kind. We can see that compounds function as a single unit while
collocations remain a combination of words even if these words go together with
very high frequency. The collocational relationship, according to McCarthy,
could appear in a variety of syntactic realizations as shown in the following
examples:
They reject my appeal.
The rejection of his appeal was a great shock.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
Looking at idioms, Bolinger (1975) argues that some idioms are virtually
unchangeable; others follow a limited amount of manipulation. McArthur (1992)
agrees with Bolinger when he makes the point that idioms are often fixed in
form. It can rain cats and dogs but never dogs and cats. According to them,
collocations are looser groupings than idioms. Collocational items can be
contiguous as with head and ache in headache or proximate to each other as with
cat and purr in The cat was purring.
In terms of meaning, Benson, Benson & Ilson (1986) use combinations with
the noun murder to illustrate the main distinguishing features of the three
categories. The least cohesive type of word combination are the so-called free
combinations. The noun murder, for example, can be used with many verbs (to
analyze, boast of, condemn, discuss, (etc.) a murder), and these verbs, in turn,
combine freely with other nouns. Idioms, on the other hand, are relatively frozen
expressions whose meanings do not reflect the meanings of their component
10

parts. An example containing the noun murder would be to scream blue murder
(to complain very loudly). Between idioms and free combinations are loosely
fixed combinations (or collocations) of the type to commit murder. The main
characteristics of collocations are that their meanings reflect the meaning of their
constituent parts (in contrast to idioms) and that they are used frequently, spring
to mind readily, and are psychologically salient (in contrast to free
combinations).
2.2.1.4. Classification of collocation
There are many different ways to classify the collocation. The classification
in terms of frequent use, of structure and of strength is described as follows:
In terms of frequent use, Sinclair (1991) divides collocation into two
categories: the upward and downward collocations. The first group consists of
words more frequently used in English than they are themselves, e.g. back
collocates with at, down, from, into, on, all of which habitually collocate with
words that are less frequent than they are, e.g. words arrive, bring are less
frequently occurring collocates of back. Sinclair makes a sharp distinction
between those two categories claiming that the elements of the upward
collocation (mostly prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns) tend to form
grammatical frames while the elements of the downward collocation (mostly
nouns and verbs) by contrast give a semantic analysis of a word. These two terms
are called respectively significant and casual collocations.
In terms of structure, Benson, Benson & Ilson (1977) divide collocations into
two groups: grammatical and lexical collocations. The first category consists of
the main word (a noun, an adjective, a verb) plus a preposition or to-infinitive or
that-clause and is characterized by eight basic types of collocations:
The first type of collocation is noun plus preposition. For example:
blockade against, apathy towards.
11

The second type is noun plus to-infinitive. See the following examples:
He was a fool to do it.
They felt a need to do it.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The third is noun plus that-clause. For example
We reached an agreement that she would represent us in court.
He took an oath that he would do his duty.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The fourth type is preposition plus noun. For example: by accident, in
agony.
The fifth type is adjective plus preposition. For example: fond of children,
hungry of news.
Adjective plus to-infinitive is the next type of collocation:
It was necessary to work
It’s nice to be here.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The next type is adjective plus that-clause. See the following example:
She was afraid that she would fail
It was imperative that I be here.
(McCarthy M & O’Dell F, 2005)
The last type of collocation is different verb patterns in English, such as
verb plus to-infinitive: they began to speak, or verb plus bare infinitive: we must
work and other.
Lexical collocations do not contain prepositions, infinitives or relative
clauses but consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. This group is of
seven types as follows:
Firstly, verb (which means creation/ action) plus noun/ pronoun/
12

prepositional phrase. For example: come to an agreement, launch a missile.
Secondly, verb (which means eradication/cancellation) plus noun. For
example: reject an appeal, crush resistance
Thirdly, [adjective plus noun] or [noun used in an attributive way plus
noun]: strong tea, a crushing defeat, house arrest, land reform.
The next type is noun plus verb naming the activity which is performed by
a designate of this noun, such as: bombs explode, bees sting
Quantifier plus noun is the next type. For example: a swarm of bees, a piece
of advice
The next type is adverb plus adjective. For example: hopelessly addicted,
sound asleep.
The last type is verb plus adverb. For example: argue heatedly, apologize
humbly.
In terms of strength, it is worth noting that it is not reciprocal, which means
that the strength between the words is not equal on both sides, e.g. blonde and
hair. Blonde collocates only with a limited number of words describing hair
colour whereas hair collocates with many words, e.g. brown, long, short, and
mousy. It happens very often that the bond between the words in unilateral, e.g.
in the phrase vested interest, vested only ever collocates with interest but interest
collocates with many other words.
According to Lewis (2000), there are very few strong collocations and he
makes a distinction between strong collocation e.g. avid reader, budding author;
common collocation which makes up numerous word combinations, e.g. fast car,
have dinner, a bit tired and medium strong one, which in his view account for
the largest part of the lexis a language learner needs, e.g. magnificent house,
significantly different. Sharing the view with Lewis, Hill (1999) adds one more
category - unique collocation. In his article, Hill (1999) divides collocations into
13

four kinds: unique collocations; strong collocations; weak collocations and
medium-strength ones. To foot the bill, shrug one’s shoulders are the examples
of the unique collocations. These are unique because foot (as a verb) and shrug
are not used with any other nouns.
2.2.1.5. Characteristics of collocation
In discussion of the nature of collocation, the author bases on her
knowledge with reference to the linguists’ works to generalize what
characteristics collocation has in common. Generally, collocation has three
major features as follows.
Collocations are arbitrary, a question often raised by speakers of English as
a foreign language is what underlies native speakers’ choice of words or why
they choose one word among a list of possibilities to combine with another so
often that they become collocation. Lewis (1997) points out that collocation is
not determined by logic or frequency but is arbitrary, decided only by linguistic
convention. In the first characteristic, words are not often combined with each
other at random. Collocation cannot be invented by a second language user. A
native speaker uses them instinctively.
According to Gairns & Redman (1986), a statement on collocation is never
absolute. As they maintain, lexical items may co-occur simply because the
combination reflects a common real world state of affairs. Such is the case, for
instance, pass and salt which collocate since people want others to pass them the
salt. However, they added, there may exist in collocation an element of linguistic
convention or native speakers’ habitual preferences in their choice of words
among a number of possibilities. It is because lexical collocations bear linguistic
convention that joining together semantically compatible parts does not always
produce a typical collocation. A native English speaker, for example, would say
the lion roared rather than bellowed.
14

Sharing the point of view with Gairns & Redman, McCarthy (1990) states
that knowledge of collocation is a question of typicality. The notion of typicality
is important, for without it we could not recognize untypical collocations, which
are part of the creativity and the imaginative dimension we find in literature.
Definitely, there is no rule of collocation and it is difficult to group items
by their collocational properties. Thus, they are best dealt with isolation as they
arise or depending on notion of typicality to decide what acceptable and
unacceptable collocations are.
Collocations are language-specific, as discussed earlier, the thing mat
matters is that the way words are chosen to combine together is conventional and
lexical collocations in English bear their own linguistic convention. Larson
(1984) describes that English, like other languages, interprets the physical
worlds in its own way and has it own convention; therefore, it governs different
collocability of words. Therefore, learners have difficulties when acquiring
knowledge of collocational appropriacy in cases where collocability is
language-specific and does not seem solely determined by universal semantic
constraints (McCarthy, 1990). English collocations are therefore specific to the
English language itself. The fact is that what is perfectly acceptable collocation
in one language may be unacceptable in another. Take the case of the verb làm
in Vietnamese as an example. Vietnamese speakers say làm bánh and làm bài
tập with the same verb làm but their equivalent meanings in English are make a
cake and do the homework by using two different verbs do and make. Then,
phrases such as do a cake and make the homework is unacceptable. Also, instead
of saying ride bicycle, Vietnamese learners sometimes says go bicycle because
đi xe đạp is totally correct in Vietnamese.
In brief, an acceptable collocation is not always made by joining
semantically compatible parts. The ability of a word to combine with another is
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